Watch out massively overpaid basketball players: you may be next to get swept away by the great robot revolution. While it can’t dribble or slam dunk just yet (it soon will) Toyota’s basketball robot is deadly from downtown, and hardly ever misses a free throw or a 3-pointer. The 207-centimeter (six-foot, 10-inch)-tall machine made five of eight 3-point shots in a demonstration in a Tokyo suburb Monday, a ratio its engineers say is worse than usual according to AP. Toyota’s robot, called Cue 3, computes as a three-dimensional image where the basket is, using sensors on its torso, and adjusts motors inside its arm and knees to give the shot the right angle and propulsion for a swish. Recent efforts in developing human-shaped robots - especially from the likes of Boston Dynamics - underline a global shift in eliminating unskilled labor robotics use from pre-programmed mechanical arms in limited situations like factories to functioning in the real world with people. The transition is rapidly reaching a critical point, with Reuters reported last month that US companies deployed more robots in 2018 than ever before - as advanced machines capable of specialized tasks have come down in price and availability. And now, robots are also starting to threaten what until recently was considered sacrosanct: sports. The 2017 version of the Toyota basketball robot was designed to make free throws; the 2018 upgrade added 3-pointers. Yudai Baba, a basketball player likely representing host Japan at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, took part in the demonstration and also missed a couple of shots. If the robot could learn a few more tricks, he was ready to accept the robot on the team, he said. “We human players are still better for now,” he said with some trepidation in his voice. The good news: for now Leborn's throne is safe: right after missing, the robot slumped over. It wasn’t disappointment, but a temporary power failure. Expect that problem to be fixed for good in the next generation. The name of the robot - Cue 3 - is supposed to reflect the idea the technology can serve as a cue, or signal of great things to come, according to Toyota. In an attempt to prevent a backlash from the sport community, Toyota played down how the technology might prove useful. It’s more about boosting morale among engineers, making them open to ideas and challenges the company said. Toyota's engineers also said that in making the robot’s outer covering something like that of an armadillo, they were just trying to avoid the white metallic look often seen on robots. Cue 3 is not the company's first attempt at making humans obsolete: the maker of the Camry sedan, Prius hybrid and Lexus cars has shown off various robots, including one that played a violin. Another, resembling R2-D2 of Star Wars, slides around and picks up things. At Monday’s demonstration, it handed the basketball to Cue 3. The case for robots is well known: manufacturers and experts say robots that can mimic human movements, in most cases doing them better, and could prove useful in various ways, including picking crops, making deliveries, and working in factories and warehouses. In fact, they could one day replace all unskilled and semi-skilled human labor. Stanford University Professor Oussama Khatib, who directs the university’s robotics lab, said Cue 3 demonstrates complex activities such as using sensors and nimble computation in real-time in what he called “visual feedback.” To shoot hoops, the robot must have a good vision system, be able to compute the ball’s path then execute the shot, he said in a telephone interview. “What Toyota is doing here is really bringing the top capabilities in perception with the top capabilities in control to have robots perform something that is really challenging,” Khatib said. Long at the forefront of the robotic industry, Japan has been aggressive in developing humanoids, including those that do little more than offer cute companionship, i.e., sex dolls (many have voiced concerns that Japan's already dismal demographics will completely collapse once men start "having sex" with robots instead of women). Meanwhile, Toyota’s rival Honda has its Asimo, a walking robot that started in the 1980s. It not only can run, but also recognize faces, avoid obstacles, shake hands, pour a drink and carry a tray. The good news is that for now professional sports player have little to worry about: when asked when such robots will be able to slam dunk, a feat that will require running, dribbling and jumping, Tomohiro Nomi, a Toyota engineer who worked on Cue 3, responded "in 20 years, with technological advances." Meanwhile, for Amazon's 600,000+ warehouse workers, it may already be too late.